12 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Behind the house in Lexington, Mass., where I lived for years, there 

 was a little hill, sparsely covered with locust trees, to the southward 

 from my dooryard. This hill was a favorite resort for warblers in 

 late summer. No warbler bred within a mile of the spot, except the 

 summer yellowbird, to use the old name, yet soon after the first of 

 July the black-and-white warblers began to assemble there. Not 

 infrequently I have seen a single bird come to the hill, flying in from 

 the north across Lexington Common, and join others there. The 

 small company might remain for an hour or more, frequently singing 

 (evidently adult males) as the birds fed in the locust trees. 



Later in the season, as August advances, migration appears more 

 evident. The birds now gather in larger numbers, sometimes as many 

 as eight or ten ; they pause in the locust trees for a shorter time before 

 flying off; they are no longer in song; and the majority of the birds 

 have white cheeks, most of them presumably young birds. Although 

 they are almost silent as they climb about feeding, if you stand quietly 

 in the midst of a company of four or five, now and then you may hear 

 a faint note, and at once the note comes from all sides, each bird ap- 

 parently reporting its whereabouts — a sound which calls to mind the 

 south-bound migrants as they roam through the quiet autumn woods. 

 Other warblers, unquestionably migrants, visit this hillside in August, 

 notably the Tennessee, an early arrival who has already traveled a 

 long way. 



The fall migration of the black-and-white is long-drawn-out. The 

 bird does not dej)end, like many of the warblers, on finding food 

 among the foliage, so it may linger long after the trees are bare of 

 leaves, sometimes, here in New England, well into October. I saw a 

 bird in eastern Massachusetts on October 23, 1940, a very late date. 



Winter.— Dr. Alexander F. Skutch (MS.) sent to A. C. Bent the 

 following comprehensive account of the bird on its winter quarters : 

 "None of our warblers is more catholic in its choice of a winter home 

 than the black-and-white. Upon its departure from its nesting range, 

 it spreads over a vast area from the Gulf States south to Ecuador 

 and Venezuela, from the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America 

 eastward through the Antilles. And in the mountainous regions of its 

 winter range it does not, like so many members of the family, restrict 

 itself to a particular altitudinal zone, but on the contrary scatters 

 from sea level high up into the mountains. As a result of this wide 

 dispersion, latitudinal and altitudinal, it appears to be nowhere abun- 

 dant in Central America during the winter months, yet it has been 

 recorded from more widely scattered localities than most other winter 

 visitants. On the southern coast of Jamaica, in December 1930, I 

 found a greater concentration of individuals than I have ever seen 

 in Central America during midwinter. 



